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Date:      Sat, 22 Sep 2007 08:15:19 -0400
From:      Bill Vermillion <bv@wjv.com>
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Why is sendmail in the core of FreeBSD
Message-ID:  <20070922121518.GA52968@wjv.com>
In-Reply-To: <20070922120018.2056616A4D5@hub.freebsd.org>
References:  <20070922120018.2056616A4D5@hub.freebsd.org>

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-segmentation fault- 
press any key to reboot 
Damn damn damn freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org said, after
restarting his PC and mailer on Sat, Sep 22, 2007 at 12:00 .


> Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2007 12:48:22 +0100
> From: Gabriel Dragffy <gabe@dragffy.com>
> Subject: Re: Why is sendmail in the core of FreeBSD?

> On 22 Sep 2007, at 12:34, Andrew Pantyukhin wrote:

> > On Sat, Sep 22, 2007 at 11:55:51AM +0100, Gabriel Dragffy
> > wrote:

> >> Just been wondering about this. If you do a standard install
> >> of FreeBSD it includes things such as a basic FTP daemon, all
> >> the various utilities such as df, ls, etc. SSHD etc. I assum
> >> these are all in FreeBSDs core, as developed in the same CVS
> >> repo. Having read the mails on this list for several weeks
> >> it seems obvious that most people regard Postfix or EXIM to
> >> be the best MTAs, so I'm wondering why is sendmail the MTA
> >> that is integral to FreeBSD? Wouldn't it be ace to have the
> >> default one be Postfix or something?

Sendmail still is one of the strongest mailers out there.  And a
great many ISPs still use it.

> > At the time sendmail was integrased into FreeBSD other MTA's were
> > pretty much out of the question. Ever since then, the integration
> > has been very well-maintained (thanks to gshapiro) and changing
> > the default MTA to something else is simply not worth the pain
> > that comes with it.

> > Personally I use Postfix wherever I need an MTA, it only takes a
> > few minutes to install it from ports. The benefit of ports is you
> > can configure all the options you need. We can't keep mysql
> > client and dovecot sasl in the base system, most people would
> > have to reinstall Postfix from ports even if it was the default
> > MTA in our base.

> I see, thank you for the heads-up. It is interesting. Personally I  
> try to use the software that comes with the OS where possible.  
> Especially in the case of FreeBSD, as I find the core software is  
> rock solid and I love that. I think I'll learn how to configure  
> sendmail and try sticking with it. At least it is documented somewhat  
> in the handbook.

> Many thanks to all

Back when sendmail was a real pain to get running - in the
mid-to-late 1980s when I first came across it, I moved to 'smail'
as it was easier to run/undrestand.  But by the early '90s I moved
over to sendmail and have run it for two ISPs.

As to handbook, if you want to know more than you ever wanted to
know about Sendmail - O'Reilly has a book on it - well over
1200 pages long.

Current shipping sendmail in FreeBSD is almost plug-and-play.

Bill
-- 
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com



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